150 replies to this topic

[Luscious Dan]

Hey all,

First off, I can't thank Alistair Winter enough for the glorious pixel mechs that have been made over the years. If you haven't seen them yet, you need to check them out asap. Alistair's Clan mechs are here, and Inner Sphere mechs are here.

I've been inspired to try my hand at creating some pixel mechs, and I started with the classic mechs (Marauder, Warhammer, Archer and Rifleman).

With some excellent feedback from AW, a lot of obsessing over each and every pixel, and basically redoing almost all of the Archer, I've come up with the versions below. Hope you like them!

Even though AW is going to be making more mechs at last, I still plan to do some more (possibly all of them?). Partially because I'm impatient, but also because it's fun and I want the challenge Likely candidates are some of my personal favorites, like the Hunchback IIC and maybe the Mauler. I don't drive any in MWO, but I have a soft spot for the design since it was featured in the cheesy TV show I loved as a kid...

IS update: Lights and mediums are all done now. There's a finish line in sight... which clearly means PGI will announce a new mech pack.




"Final" Clan update: They're pretty much done after all these years! I may still come back and tinker, but it's crazy to not have any gaps in the lineup after all this time... true to form I uploaded a version with an updated flamer design and noticed the Adder was actually missing its flamer entirely. Fixed now

Edited by Luscious Dan, 25 November 2020 - 02:09 PM.

[Luscious Dan]

Not quite sure I'm ready to call it finalized, but here's a Mauler

Edited by Luscious Dan, 20 July 2016 - 08:53 AM.

[Stingray Productions]

I always thought it would be cool to take these images and somehow make a simple old dos-like game

[Luscious Dan]

Yeah that would be pretty cool, I could see a game like an old school platformer being fun and not super hard by today's standards. Basically like Metal Slug or more accurately, Metal Warriors for SNES Still one of my life goals to track down a copy of that game (and not spend a fortune in the process) lol.

[White Bear 84]

Yup, your WHM is my new twitter profile pic. Awesome!

[Luscious Dan]

Well if it's slow today, I think HBK-IIC is officially on deck.

[Luscious Dan]

Not entirely sure I'm happy with the HBK-IIC so I will post the Fafnir ... yeah, yeah it's not a proper MWO mech but a man can dream can't he?

Is it 3063 yet?

[Solid Alexei]

I wish Marauder's arms were like this in MWO! Your iteration looks awesome!

[Luscious Dan]

The original artwork for the Marauder had the arms flaring out further ... but yeah the in-game model has the t-rex arms in front of the legs. Would have looked a lot worse in pixel mech form so I stuck to the art. I also had a dose of Shimmering Sword Marauder influence in a few places, I can't deny it

Edited by Luscious Dan, 07 July 2016 - 11:09 PM.

[Solid Alexei]

Luscious Dan, on 07 July 2016 - 11:09 PM, said:

The original artwork for the Marauder had the arms flaring out further ... but yeah the in-game model has the t-rex arms in front of the legs. Would have looked a lot worse in pixel mech form so I stuck to the art. I also had a dose of Shimmering Sword Marauder influence in a few places, I can't deny it

It looks amazing! I would have paid premium to buy such Marauder in-game

[AWOL 01]

Hey, I'm working on a Chameleon right now; mind if I post it here when I'm done?

[Odanan]

Stingray1234, on 28 June 2016 - 09:20 AM, said:

I always thought it would be cool to take these images and somehow make a simple old dos-like game

Something like this, but with "MWO" pixel mechs:

(The Crescent Hawk's Revenge)

[AWOL 01]

Here it is! Spent about an hour and a half on this and I don't really know what else to do with it... I feel like it's a little too bright... It's my first try at pixel art so any tips would be greatly appreciated! I really enjoyed it and I'll probably try some other mechs in the future.



I used these two pictures as references:





And some info:

CLN-7V "Chameleon"
Introduced: 2510
Cost: 4,623,375 C-bills
Mass: 50 tons
Speed: 97.2 km/h
Armament: 1 Large Laser, 2 Medium Lasers, 3 Small Lasers, 2 Machine Guns

[Odanan]

AWOL 01, on 09 July 2016 - 01:50 PM, said:

Here it is! Spent about an hour and a half on this and I don't really know what else to do with it... I feel like it's a little too bright... It's my first try at pixel art so any tips would be greatly appreciated! I really enjoyed it and I'll probably try some other mechs in the future.


And some info:

CLN-7V "Chameleon"
Introduced: 2510
Cost: 4,623,375 C-bills
Mass: 50 tons
Speed: 97.2 km/h
Armament: 1 Large Laser, 2 Medium Lasers, 3 Small Lasers, 2 Machine Guns

Excellent! I'm looking forward for the next creations.

PS: the Chameleon should have hands in both arms.

[Odanan]

Someone could make a thread called like "Pixel Mechs", where people post their pixel mechs inspired by Alistair Winter's creations. Who knows how many artists will join?

PS: I got at least 1 mech to add.

[AWOL 01]

Odanan, on 09 July 2016 - 05:22 PM, said:

Excellent! I'm looking forward for the next creations.

PS: the Chameleon should have hands in both arms.

I was wondering about that. When I looked at the pictures it looked like the first one had a weapon arm but now that you mention it I can see that it's a full arm...

Oh well, I guess I took some artistic license.

Not sure what mech I should do next so if anyone has a request just let me know.

Edited by AWOL 01, 11 July 2016 - 03:20 AM.

[Tarogato]

I tried doing a Blood Kite once - it was almost a futile effort, you should try it. xD

[Luscious Dan]

The Chameleon looks very nice, I think you did very well for your first pixel mech. It's definitely a fun way to pass the time.

For advice I'll pass along the same info Alistair gave to me, which was to focus on depth (distance from the viewer's POV) a bit more to give a less flat look to the mech. My personal style still doesn't incorporate quite as much emphasis on depth as Alistair's, but you can see the difference between my original Archer in the how-to image below, compared to the updated version in this thread. He's right, it did look very flat before and I think it looks much better after I redid most of it.



Doing the pixel mechs gets a lot easier with practice, but I do keep going back to the older ones and looking at ways I could do them better or at least differently, and sometimes I do make the changes. Eventually I'll update the files uploaded to my website (and the forum threads accordingly). But at least for me, I consider them permanently WIP since there's always something you can do differently.

[AWOL 01]

Tarogato, on 11 July 2016 - 03:43 AM, said:

I tried doing a Blood Kite once - it was almost a futile effort, you should try it. xD

Alright, Blood Kite it is then!

Luscious Dan, on 11 July 2016 - 08:52 AM, said:

The Chameleon looks very nice, I think you did very well for your first pixel mech. It's definitely a fun way to pass the time.

For advice I'll pass along the same info Alistair gave to me, which was to focus on depth (distance from the viewer's POV) a bit more to give a less flat look to the mech. My personal style still doesn't incorporate quite as much emphasis on depth as Alistair's, but you can see the difference between my original Archer in the how-to image below, compared to the updated version in this thread. He's right, it did look very flat before and I think it looks much better after I redid most of it.



Doing the pixel mechs gets a lot easier with practice, but I do keep going back to the older ones and looking at ways I could do them better or at least differently, and sometimes I do make the changes. Eventually I'll update the files uploaded to my website (and the forum threads accordingly). But at least for me, I consider them permanently WIP since there's always something you can do differently.

Thanks, I agree it's a great way to spend a little extra free time.

I saw Alistair's advice in the other thread too, and it was really helpful. I think it'll take a little more practice to do it correctly though. I agree though that a lot of it is personal preference/style, but that's a good thing.

[Odanan]

Can someone consider to do next the Stone Rhino? (specially this version)